Whether you watched the video carefully, or you missed few words while watching, you have certainly understood its main message: any person who arrives by sea and without a visa in the Australian territory will be sent back and there will be no possibility for her to make Australia home.
This controversial video, released by the Government in April, has sparked a lot of criticism; criticism that continue still today towards the Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, and especially towards the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Scott Morrison. Someone could object that General Campbell, Commander of the Sovereign Borders Operation, in the video, explicitly affirms that the aim of the Government is to contrast the smuggling of migrants and the smugglers, who ask a lot of money in exchange for false hopes. Maybe General Campbell forgets that, when the Australian military forces intercept a smuggler with his boat, they don't send back only a criminal: they send back dozens, if not hundreds of people in need.
The video, indeed, is only a further evidence of the fact that the Australian policies on immigration and asylum are aimed at deterrence and punishment, rather than the reception of migrants and asylum seekers. In the best case (best sounds like a cruel euphemism), if a migrant is able to reach the Australian coasts and ask for asylum, he can experience a long stay in a detention centre. It is not surprising that many Australian legal scholars and many NGOs, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, accuse the honourable Morrison and his Government of breaching the UN Conventions, on Status of Refugees (1951) and on the Rights of the Child (1989).
A country born because someone immigrated from another country to Australia, a country that has always regarded the migrants as a resource, a country that has always been considered a destination for new opportunities refuses to help human beings fleeing from a dramatic situation. This is a paradox, isn't it?
The video, indeed, is only a further evidence of the fact that the Australian policies on immigration and asylum are aimed at deterrence and punishment, rather than the reception of migrants and asylum seekers. In the best case (best sounds like a cruel euphemism), if a migrant is able to reach the Australian coasts and ask for asylum, he can experience a long stay in a detention centre. It is not surprising that many Australian legal scholars and many NGOs, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, accuse the honourable Morrison and his Government of breaching the UN Conventions, on Status of Refugees (1951) and on the Rights of the Child (1989).
A country born because someone immigrated from another country to Australia, a country that has always regarded the migrants as a resource, a country that has always been considered a destination for new opportunities refuses to help human beings fleeing from a dramatic situation. This is a paradox, isn't it?
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